if you could specify which package you're trying to build, we might be of some help I'm not impressed by the multitude of compiler errors on MIPSPro output. It usually is a wrong declaration (inline or something similar) which cascades through your source file...

The application is my own. It was developed up to now compiling with gcc (because of the lex warnings). Everything goes together OK. I just today switched over to MIPSpro in preparation of compiling -64 to use 128 bit precision in the calculations. My questions are:

a) what does that linking error mean? -- what has become garbled in the code that a rebuild clears out?

I have no clue whatsoever about the linker error. Do you use fancy flags when compiling? -Ofast? -IPA? -TARG:? Do you use archives, maybe?

As for the flex errors, try to look hard at the function "input", looks like it's been redeclared in the c code, which conflicts with a previous prototype header. Compile gcc with -ansi -pedantic and see if it blurts more warnings about that function.